


QUIET NAMES

by kurgaya



Series: LINGUA [1]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Deaf Character, First Meetings, Gen, Humor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-04
Updated: 2018-11-04
Packaged: 2019-08-18 19:20:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,043
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16523126
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kurgaya/pseuds/kurgaya
Summary: //Let’s start with introductions// Kakashi signs. //Likes, dislikes, dreams for the future.//“Uchiha Sasuke,” provides the moody Uchiha after a long, long pause. “My likes and dislikes are none of your business, and my dream is a kill a certain man.”//U-C-H-I-H-A S-A-S-U-K-E// Yamato spells, hands flashing through the rest. //What’s his family sign again?//Kakashi offers the name-sign for ‘UCHIHA’, to which Yamato adds ‘YIKES’.[Deaf!Kakashi AU. Team 7 starts a little differently].





	QUIET NAMES

**Author's Note:**

> **Notes:**
> 
> 1) Any signs that I describe will be taken from/based upon British Sign Language, in which I am not fluent.
> 
> 2) //This is signing// in place of "dialogue". 'THIS' is a character producing a particular sign. And 'T-H-I-S' is fingerspelling.
> 
> 3) In BSL, facial expression is extremely important for conveying meaning - in fact, it can even change meaning. Kakashi is atypical in this regard because he's wearing a mask and one of his eyes is covered, so this limits the expressions he can use. But I'm glossing over the impact of this because that involves an entire backstory for him that I haven't written lol

The leaves of Tenzō’s body-flicker are greener than everybody else’s. Kakashi peeks over the pages of his book to see him picking loose greenery from his hair. Kakashi raises a hand in greeting, as does Tenzō, then drops his attention back to the book to finish the last of the page. There’s plenty enough space on the Academy roof for Tenzō to make himself comfortable, but once he’s done fussing with the local wildlife, he chooses to stand. He looks odd dressed down in the jōnin blues rather than the sharp, ANBU blacks and greys: they both do; Kakashi still finds himself reaching to twiddle with the ANBU vambraces that used to adorn his arms. Tenzō doesn’t seem to know what to do with a pair of trousers that have _pockets_ ; the jōnin uniform really is casual in comparison. They’re both wearing under-armour to compensate; Kakashi can see Tenzō’s mesh vest peeking out from beneath his jacket. He’ll grow into it one day, but for now, he’s still Kakashi’s cute little _kohai_ , and Kakashi smiles to himself behind his pages and mask.

Eventually, he lays the book into his lap. Asuma and Kurenai have already come and gone, six nervous chakra signatures bobbing along behind them. Even the Academy teacher has ended his shift, and now all that remains in the classroom are the three little wannabes that may fashion Kakashi’s new - and only - team. At least Kakashi won’t be dealing with them alone.

//You didn’t have to come.//

Tenzō rolls his eyes, a not-quite smile. Finally, he sits, apparently realising that Kakashi’s planning on making the genin wait a little longer. //Should’ve told me that before I woke early this morning// he replies, looking put-out. He doesn’t often smile; in fact, he’s usually pretty closed off, but Kakashi knows him well enough to decipher his mood. //If you think you can handle the kids alone, I’ll just be going, then.//

He makes an exaggerated effort as if to stand. Kakashi flicks a leaf at him. Tenzō laughs. What a strange sound it must be.

//It’d be a good learning experience for them// Kakashi signs. The number of shinobi in the village who know Konohan Sign Language are few - he can count them on one hand. There’s a larger civilian Deaf community in the village, but it’s by no means _large_ : Kakashi keeps tabs on them but it’s been years since they last had a conversation. A seasoned ANBU assassin certainly has no place amongst a small gathering of civilians. He would imagine they’ve all but forgotten him - unless they keep tabs on the community in a similar fashion; Kakashi, at least, still remembers the name and face of every individual who’s passed through. It  _would_ be a good learning experience for the kids, having to find other ways of communicating with him.

There are no other deaf shinobi in the village. The few shinobi that are familiar with KSL, be it fluent or just a handful of phrases, are hearing people. Tenzō is, by far, the most fluent. The only reason that Kakashi is even allowed to take on a genin team is because he has Tenzō to interpret. The Hokage still isn’t completely sold on the idea, but Tenzō can come across as surprisingly fierce to anybody that hasn’t run missions with him. It helps that Asuma isn’t afraid to radiate disapproval from the corner of his father’s office. Kakashi, himself, isn’t a fan of the idea of being stuck with three kids for the foreseeable future, but it beats the alternatives: desk duty or staying in ANBU.

//If you ever want me to stop interpreting, just let me know// Tenzō signs. The Hokage’s orders require him to interpret for the team at all times, but that’s a ridiculous order. The kids will have to learn KSL at some point if Kakashi is to be their sensei. Until then, there’s no fun in handing _everything_ to them on a silver platter. Plus, asking Tenzō to interpret all day, every day is unfeasible; he’s certainly never, _ever_ complained (in fact, he volunteers; until Tenzō, Kakashi ran missions solo or with basic, ANBU gestures and no small amount of pointing) but his signing does slip once he’s exhausted. And out on the mission, he can’t afford to misinterpret: Kakashi, as ANBU captain, can’t afford to make decisions based on tired signing. Tenzō needs to rest, even if he insists that he doesn't.

The three chakra signatures downstairs buzz impatiently. It's been hours. It’s about time Kakashi popped his head around the door.

//Did you decide on a name?// he asks, stashing the book under his arm.

Tenzō stands and brushes himself down before replying. //Yeah. I was thinking ‘Yamato’.// He fingerspells it out, looking faintly embarrassed: ‘Y-A-M-A-T-O’. //But please don’t change my name-sign on my account.//

Kakashi had only been planning to if asked, unless Tenzō’s new name provided an even better opportunity for a name-sign. (By ‘better’ he means ‘better for teasing’, but it doesn’t. But that’s probably why Tenzō chose it). Some people don’t like the idea of Kakashi choosing a name-sign for them, but that’s tough-luck. Still, he shrugs and offers; names are just as important to Tenzō as they are to Kakashi, and thus he makes an exception. //It’s your name.//

//I like my name-sign.//

//You hate it.//

Tenzō - or Yamato, now - laughs. //But it’s mine and I want you to keep it. Is that okay?//

//Sure thing.// Kakashi makes a scissor-like motion near his ear and Yamato colours. It works even better as a name-sign now that he’s finally cut his hair, and short hair suits him just as Kakashi said it would. //Come on, the brats are waiting.//

Yamato salutes before they body-flicker inside.

Team 7 are even tinier than their chakra suggest. There’s two boys and a girl, as Kakashi assumes, and it’s the girl who reacts first, shrieking something with a face nearly as red as her dress, her hands slamming down onto the desk. The Uchiha sitting in the row behind her startles out of a doze, and the blond-haired, whisker-cheeked child that can only be Minato and Kushina’s menace of a son falls off the ladder by the door. The chalk block he’d been trying to balance on top of the door lands with a poof of dust at his feet, but he’s bouncing back onto his feet before the ladder crashes onto him too. Yamato catches it because he’s far too nice to these children, and whatever Naruto shouts in response is silent to Kakashi’s ears.

//Say ‘thank you’// Kakashi suggests, doubting that Naruto’s yell included those words.

Naruto freezes, blinking as owlishly as his father. Yamato sets the ladder aside and interprets, which draws the kids’ boggling eyes away from Kakashi’s hands.

“Say ‘thank you’,” Yamato says, showing Naruto the sign. He taps his fingers to his chin and then motions away, repeating the sign until Naruto copies slowly, the big, too big, blue eyes of his father flicking between Yamato and Kakashi in confusion.

“Why can’t I just - like -  _say_ it?”

//Good question. Because I’m deaf. I’m Hatake Kakashi, your new jōnin instructor. Yamato is here as my interpreter.// Kakashi smiles as the kids’ jaws drop, and then flashes his personal ‘PRIVATE’ sign before continuing. Halting Yamato’s interpreting will only work while the kids are non-signers, but Kakashi will take what he can get. //Be nice to the little kiddies and say ‘hi’, why don’t you? Your face is scaring them.//

Yamato almost, _almost_ kicks him. “This is Konohan Sign Language. You’ll be learning to use it if Kakashi-sensei takes you on as a team,” he explains to the jaw-slack team. He interprets just out of sync: speaking and signing at the same time is almost impossible, as he tells Kakashi. The kids glance between them, unsure who to be following. It’s a common misconception that they’ll be able to understand a single thing that Kakashi signs, so they’re better off watching Yamato for now. Conversation with the kids will be slow while they’re learning, but Kakashi can be patient. He taught Gai, Asuma, and Kurenai nearly all of the sign they know, after all.

“Wait - _if_?” repeats the girl, sharp as a tack. (Kakashi doesn’t want to play favourites, but he calls dibs on pink-haired. Yamato _does_ kick him this time).

“That’s stupid,” grumbles the Uchiha. He’s already proving to be nothing like Obito, thank goodness, and everything like Kakashi, especially as he sneers, “You're a jōnin. Why aren’t _you_ teaching us?”

Kakashi lands on the desk behind the boy in one seamless, lightning-fine step, and drops his book down onto the Uchiha's head. This time, it’s the girl who jumps and goes careening over her chair; the Uchiha whirls around with fire flickering at the corner of his mouth, but it’s Naruto, of all people, who comes to the rescue by vaulting over the desk and into his teammate, knocking them both to the floor.

(The Uchiha’s rescue, of course. Kakashi would have snuffed that fire out by laughing).

“Oh, because I would’ve killed you for saying that,” Yamato says pleasantly. “Kakashi-sensei’s much more reasonable than me.”

Sharingan no Kakashi. _Reasonable_.

“He just _hit_ Sasuke!” the girl cries, pointing accusingly at him. It’s a fair point, and one that no-one will dispute. But then the girl blinks, seeming to realise that Sasuke isn’t where she last saw him. She shrieks at the sight of her teammates rough-housing on the floor. “ _Naruto_ \- get off him! Sasuke, are you okay? Are you hurt? Did he -?”

Being tackled from the bench probably did more damage than Kakashi’s book.

“Kakashi-sensei isn’t stupid!” Naruto snaps, shouting loud enough that Kakashi can _feel_ it in the kid’s chakra, as light as Minato’s but as _dark_ as Kushina’s, as the Kyūbi inside him. The fact that he’s coming to the defence of a stranger is admirable, and ridiculous, and Kakashi feels oddly flattered as Naruto jumps up and plants his feet. He seems to have forgotten that Kakashi can’t hear him, mind you, but Yamato’s attempt to match his enthusiasm is commendable. “If he’s our sensei, then that means he’s the best!”

(If these brats pass the bell test, Kakashi is going to lord this over Naruto _forever_ ).

//Cute// Yamato signs.

Kakashi may be blushing. //Okay, let’s wrap this up before something gets broken// he signs, dispelling the argument with a flash of chakra. //Meet us on the roof. Don’t be late.//

Naruto is the first to arrive, which is no surprise. Sasuke sulks over with his hands in his pockets. Pink-haired is last, and she approaches Yamato almost shyly, looking perfectly polite as she asks him something. Kakashi raises an eyebrow when Yamato fails to interpret, and then raises the other as Yamato produces a slower, exaggerated version of a sign. She nods and thanks him, and Yamato’s smile is Kakashi’s only warning before she marches over and signs 'HYPOCRITE' into his face.

Correction: he'll take these kids over desk duty _any day_.

//Is that any way to speak to your sensei?// he replies, hoping Yamato translates his sarcasm. It must not work because the girl sucks in her lips, looking embarrassed. _Short temper_ , Kakashi decides, _but raised as a good civilian_. He’ll change that, if he teaches her. Politeness won’t save her in a fight, but a temper might. //Let’s start with introductions. Likes, dislikes, dreams for the future. You first, girly.//

The nickname almost sets her off again. Kakashi smiles behind his mask.

“I’m Haruno Sakura. I like -” She looks at Sasuke, luckily missing Yamato’s eye roll as he fingerspells her name. “I dislike -” She looks at Naruto. “And my dream for the future is -” She looks at Sasuke again and blushes, burying her face in her hands.

//Lord help us// Yamato signs, just for Kakashi’s eyes.

Kakashi almost can’t believe this is the same girl who just threw a sign in his face.

“I’m Uzumaki Naruto!” Naruto declares next, thumping a fist against his chest. “I like ramen and I hate how long ramen takes to cook, and my dream is to be the Hokage so that everyone acknowledges me!”

“Uchiha Sasuke,” provides the moody Uchiha after a long, _long_ pause. “My likes and dislikes are none of your business, and my dream is a kill a certain man.”

//U-C-H-I-H-A S-A-S-U-K-E// Yamato spells, hands flashing through the rest. //What’s his family sign again?//

Kakashi offers the name-sign for ‘UCHIHA’, to which Yamato adds ‘YIKES’.

“What about you, Kakashi-sensei? And, and - err - Yamato-sensei?” Naruto asks, his face scrunching at the title. Yamato signs ‘CUTE’ again and Kakashi shakes his head, trying not to smile; they need a better name-sign for the brat then _that_. It'll be mortifying to explain once Naruto starts picking up signs.

He needs name-signs for all of them (and looking at Sakura’s hair and Naruto’s whisker-like cheeks has given him a few ideas) but for now, initials will have to do. If they pass the bell test, prove themselves, and become his students, then he’ll think on the matter. He’ll have a lot to think about, true, and teaching KSL is at the top of the list. That’s half the reason Yamato’s here, really: interpreting, and teaching. Eventually, they’ll need Yamato’s interpretations less and less as the kids grow more confident with signing, and Kakashi quickly dashes that thought. They may not pass. Sakura’s iron-willed, that’s for sure, but she’s hiding it behind good manners and a silly crush. Naruto has a kind heart and no filter, and he’s so, so painfully Kushina that it almost hurts to look at him. Sasuke needs friends, end of. Optimistically, these are all things that Kakashi can fix - except for Naruto’s resemblance to his parents, but that’s something Kakashi is going to have to live with for the rest of his life. The only thing that he _cannot_ change is whether the team appreciates the importance of teamwork, and that’s what their future hinges on.

//Well, there are many things I like and dislike// he begins. Yamato shoots him a flat look at the half-assed answer but does his duty as an interpreter, following along. //And I don’t have a dream for the future because I believe in being realistic. You kids are going to be the death of me. Not yet, because you’re loud and annoying; you're loud; and you're annoying - // He points at Naruto, Sakura, and then Sasuke. //But one day.//

The team blink at each other. Sasuke looks like boredom is going to be the death of _him_. Yamato is doing a poor job at trying not to laugh.

“Okay, okay - moving on. Naruto, I’m not here - officially - as your sensei, so please don’t call me that,” Yamato says, bringing the conversation back on topic. He’s probably going to be doing a lot of that in the near future. “And as we’ve already established, Kakashi-sensei is here to teach you; I’m just an interpreter.”

//And friend.//

“And friend,” Yamato adds, not-smiling gently. He tries to kick Kakashi again because ANBU affection is weird. “But I think that’s enough about me.”

“But -” Naruto sputters. “We haven’t learnt anything about you!”

“Secrecy is lesson two of being a shinobi.”

“What’s lesson one?”

//Ask us tomorrow and we might tell you// Kakashi signs, trying not to look too gleeful at how they might reaction to the bell test. He finally gets to feel how Minato did all those years ago, watching three wannabe-shinobi throw themselves around to no avail. Kakashi, of course, snatched one of the two bells during the test; he still has it (along with a thunder kunai), but he won’t be dangling it in front of these genin tomorrow morning. No, instead he’ll be dangling their hopes and dreams and it’s going to be _fantastic_.

He shrugs, portraying an air of innocence. //Assuming I haven’t sent you all back to the Academy by then.//

It has the desired effect. Naruto and Sakura jump up, shouting rapid-fire accusations and denials. Yamato interprets every curse. They look half-crazed, torn between disbelief and fear. Even Sasuke looks unsettled at the prospect of failing their final test, eyes so dark that a _tomoe_ might as well be spinning. Fire shimmers under his skin.

“You can’t do that.”

Put it on record that Kakashi’s new favourite hobby is messing with these brats. //Sure can. You cute little kids only pass if I say you pass. Tomorrow, we’ll find out if you have what it takes to be a shinobi of Konoha.//

(It’s funny, isn’t it, how it’s _teamwork_ that makes a Konoha shinobi when it was teamwork that tore his father apart).

“But -”

//No buts, Naruto.//

“But you’re -!”

//Very smart, thank you, Sakura. I’m glad you think so. Meet us bright and early at training ground nine, okay? Eight o’clock sharp - and don’t eat breakfast.//

Naruto swallows hard. Sakura looks like she might burst into a rage or tears, it's hard to tell.

“You’re crazy,” Sasuke mutters - in fact, he probably doesn’t; it’s probably _he’s crazy_ , probably just something grumbled under his breath, but Yamato’s an interpreter, not a word-for-word translator, and he points from Sasuke to Kakashi, signing:

//You’re crazy.//

He looks rather put-out by it too, so Sasuke probably wasn’t joking. Kakashi sighs, praying for strength, and taps his team-to-be on their shoulders just as they turn to leave. One day, they’ll learn not to turn their backs until they’re sure the conversation is done, and then they’ll only show their backs to Kakashi on the battlefield, when even what’s left unsaid is loud and clear.

//A piece of advice. Don’t say anything you don’t want Yamato to interpret.// He smiles, aiming for menacing and achieving it, and gives them a shove towards the stairs. //Even the _trees_ have ears.//

The kids scatter like puppies tripping over their tails. It’s cute and hilarious, and Kakashi whips out _Icha Icha Paradise_ just so that Yamato cannot see the size of his smile.

Looking pointedly less enthusiastic about this whole fiasco, Yamato slumps into a full-body sigh. //You know, one day they’ll know how to sign and you’re never going to get them to shut up.//

Kakashi knows.

He’s looking forward to it.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!! Please leave a comment as you go :)


End file.
